As we near the 30 minute mark remaining in the 2009 Trade Deadline, teams are finding out the market is sluggish as the sellers are not willing to make a deal for the sake of making a deal â€“ and the deals that are coming are a bit confusing.

Case in point is the New York Islanders and Bill Guerin. The Isles traded their captain to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a conditional draft pick. At the very least, the Isles will receive a fifth round draft pick. If Pittsburgh makes the playoffs, the pick becomes a fourth round pick. Should the Pens win a round in the playoffs, the draft pick becomes a third rounder.

While that seems light in terms of getting equal value for Guerin, perhaps GM Rath Snow had no alternative to get what he could for his former captain. Greg Logan of Newsday wrote that there was a growing rift between Guerin and coach Scott Gordon. With such a young team and if this was the case, Snow had no choice but to get Guerin off of Long Island.

GM Ray Shero added another forward by hitting the waiver wire to claim Craig Adams from the Chicago Blackhawks. That move sets the Blackhawks up to acquire a center and a TSN report had Chciago acquiring Dominic Moore from Toronto, but the Maple Leafs denied the report.

Teams are going to have to pick up the pace if they are going to equal last yearâ€™s total of 25 trades. With only 8 deals on the books (involving 17 players and 7 draft picks), it looks like it will either be a relatively quiet deadline or a blizzard of last-minute trades. Remember, that while the deadline is 3pm Eastern Time, trades can and will be announced after the deadline because it takes the NHL time to register and approve the trades.

RANGERS UPDATE – Steve Zipay of Newsday is blogging that the Phoenix Coyotes are trying to get the Rangers to bite on offensive defenseman Derek Morris. TSN is reporting that the Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers are the leading candidates. Also, TSN reports that Toronto is receiving offers of second round draft picks for Nik Antropov and Dominic Moore.